Let’s be real; in every way imaginable this weekend is Crap Christmas. Easter is the Justice League to Christmas’ Avengers – it has the same tedious check-list, just with fewer frills. Inevitably, along with the inevitable chocolate binge, this means each year we re-run debates on “the true meaning” of Easter. 2017, like every year, has featured the usual assortment of adorable videos of 3 year olds humorously critiquing the logistics of rabbits that lay eggs, as well as the usual tedious, forced stand-up routine from that friend, about whether someone who is resurrected is necessarily a zombie (sorry fella, Cyanide and Happiness outflanked you on that by a good decade); but of course while you might get some entertainment out of these finicky points of pedantry, they completely ignore the ideological undercurrent of the festival in its modern form. That’s why this Easter Sunday, we’re taking a look back at a forgotten work of savage satire; Antonia Bird’s Ravenous (1999).Continue reading →

This week internet freedom is once again a hot issue, with Theresa May announcing new powers for police to keep tabs on individual IP addresses for the sake of ‘national security’. Dr Paul Bernal is a Law lecturer at the University of East Anglia, and whilst specialising in internet privacy, also knows his subject can seem a little dry to us laypeople. Fortunately he also knows his Snow White from his Cinderella. Adapted from his well-received presentation on the same subject (also posted below), here is an article originally published on his blog explaining privacy issues through the medium of Disney Princesses. It is nothing short of spectacular…